


The Fox and the Grind

by darkmagicians



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, also gray fox is like barely mentioned don't get excited, but wiiiith a twist!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 05:33:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13804494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkmagicians/pseuds/darkmagicians
Summary: Hal isn't exactly picky about how caffeine gets into his body, but one of the baristas at a local coffee shop is kind of cute.





	The Fox and the Grind

There is a coffee shop within walking distance of Hal’s dorm, called FoxGround. He supposes it’s a joke based on the university mascot and coffee but it always sounded kind of morbid to him. It’s close enough that sometimes he even actually walks there, bypassing the kitschy souvenir shop on the first floor of its building for the cozy café, all dim lights and seasonal drinks and a few beat up leather couches. The drinks are good, although he’s hardly a connoisseur of such things and would settle for injecting caffeine directly into his blood stream to be perfectly honest, but one of the baristas is kind of cute.

Hal had been intimidated by him at first. David was _all_ muscle and quiet, gruff words, with a glacial gaze that felt like it could pin him physically to the wall. He was there about two thirds of the time Hal stopped in, and he was always a little disappointed when one of the other baristas was there instead. He wouldn’t call it a crush or even an infatuation – he didn’t even know David’s name for months, but eventually the sense of intimidation wore off and he grew to appreciate things beyond David’s biceps (which like, still though, holy _shit_ ) like his slight tug of a smile and the dryly humorous quips he made on occasion.

Most of their interactions were simple. Hal ordered one of the weird new monthly drinks and because he came in at weird times, when the shop was mostly empty, David would chat with him. Usually they discussed the weather, because Hal was about as socially confident as a wet paper towel was structurally sound, and then he’d take his completed drink and leave. Memorably, one time, Hal was so distracted by admiring David that his order came out more like this:

“Uh yeah, cadeye get a sixthdichate – let me try that again – “

He had tried his best to ignore his obvious blush, took his slightly burnt homemade apple streusel/pastry/whatever they were, ignored David’s quirked lips and raised eyebrow and lingering touch when he handed back Hal’s card and avoided the place for a month. When he finally made it back, a rainy humid _miserable_ day on which he needed to be somewhere that wasn’t his dorm or his lab but he didn’t have the energy for sustained human interaction, David had looked at him thoughtfully.

“You alright, kid?” Hal had looked up from pointedly not tapping his wallet against his leg waiting to pay and wow seriously how were this guy’s eyes so _clear_ – and stuttered over three responses before getting out

“Yeah… just midterm season you know?” and he laughed. David made a small “hn” of agreement and turned back to making his drink. Hal opened his mouth, closed it, and then “It’s Hal, by the way.” David glanced at him over the espresso machine.

“I know.”

“Wha –“

“You usually pay with card.”

“Oh, right.” Hal smiled nervously and started studiously examining the display of cookies until his finished drink invaded his vision.

“Here.” David looked at him warmly. “Staying a while, Hal?”

Hal stayed in the shop for another two hours talking to David, messing around on his phone on the two sole occasions other customers came in through the driving rain.

After that he took some of his work to the café when he could, or just hung out there absorbing the energy of a space that wasn’t his tiny messy dorm room or the lab. The lab he knew every speck of innately, down to the number of ceiling tiles and their stained patterns, computer layouts and messes of wires that were the background of even his dreams during crunch periods.

He learned David wasn’t a student but still more than smart enough to keep up with Hal, bantering with him over philosophical questions and seeming to follow some of his simpler technical explanations, even if it clearly bored him a bit sometimes. David let him talk through problems, cleaning equipment and organizing croissants and miniature cupcakes while Hal verbally worked through circuit board arrangements and code.

He learned David had two dogs, of which he happily showed Hal pictures and videos of when asked, or when he thought Hal was looking particularly down about life, which was… often. He had a weird relationship with the silver haired man who seemed to run the place and who was about as terrifying as David had seemed initially, maybe more so whenever he caught Hal’s eyes.

Hal thought nothing of how little he really knew about David, or how David gracefully ducked out of any opening or line of conversation that might lead to an interaction outside of FoxGround. He didn’t think about how jumpy David got when people ran up the stairs to the shop too aggressively, sound thunderous in the older building, or when people slammed textbooks down on their table.

In retrospect, some of these things made more sense, but also not really at all, because Hal could never have prepared himself for that night.

It was about 45 minutes to closing and Hal had given up entirely on getting any more work done on his project within the walls of FoxGround, choosing instead to pursue the finer points of a one-sided debate on why Metal Gal Sirena 2 was ahead of its time and that’s why people just didn’t _understand_ the ending. David was not being terribly sympathetic about it, having clearly watched most of the series since Hal brought it up, but also being one of the people who didn’t like –

A series of dull BAPs and the sound of shattering glass downstairs interrupted their conversation. Hal was still running through possibilities for the sound but as it continued _gunfire_ was rapidly becoming one of his only ideas and he was frozen half out of his seat, about to take a step towards the window when David’s arm was thrust in front of him.

“Stay down.” David growled. Hal’s brain restarted and he realized David had vaulted over the counter, slamming the lights off and – and – had his _own_ gun?

“Snake! We know you’re in there!” A muffled voice called. David ground his teeth, glancing around for what Hal couldn’t guess. A second round of gunfire shattered the shop windows and Hal cowered. What the _hell_ was going on?

“You need to move.” David snapped. Hal tried to articulate a response to that and couldn’t, so he just nodded jerkily. “Listen. The supply room in the back has a window you can reach the fire escape from. The alley it lets out in goes towards Ray Street.”

“SNAKE!” A different voice called, accented, and the best word for the scowl that twisted David’s face was disgust. He grabbed Hal’s bag and forced it into his arms.

“What are you going to do?” Hal found it within himself to ask, shrugging his backpack on.

“I’ll be right behind you.” David answered without missing a beat, but without taking his gaze off the window. “Now _move._ ” And he grabbed Hal’s arm and physically pushed him down and back, forcing Hal to continue moving or fall onto his face. So he moved. The supply room wasn’t far- FoxGround wasn’t large – but every fraction of a second it took to get there felt like an age as he breathlessly waited for the gunshots to get closer, or for someone to break in the door. David fired the handgun he was holding and it sounded unbelievably loud in the tiny shop. The sound of several sets of boots paused downstairs for a moment, recalculating, and David reached around Hal to deftly unlock the supply room door.

“They’re here for me, they won’t come after you.” David said harshly. “Once you’re outside, head north and don’t fucking hesitate.” He pressed the key ring into Hal’s hands and bodily shoved him through the doorway.

“Wha – “

And the door slammed shut and the lock clicked with a deafening finality, leaving him in the dark supply room, lit fuzzily from the frosted window on the far wall. In the seconds it took for him to process what had just happened, and as if on auto pilot, open and slide out the window, he heard three more words.

 

_“Liquid!”_

 

_“So. Brother.”_

**Author's Note:**

> ;0
> 
> I feel like aus where someone was secretly a secret agent or something were cliche a couple years ago??? This is for the MGS Winter Games 2018, Challenge F8.


End file.
